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Remember MA Spider-Man is the best selling subscription Marvel has, which last year was ~30k units (it beat ASM even with their super cheap subscription rate promotion). I would assume it's the same this year.

That's quite a drop, overall. But it looks like they've taken massive hits across lines, so I assume it has more to do with an overall lack of money going around rather than specific stories.

Oh, yeah. My comment aside it does appear to be a systemic market drop due to the economy.

Still, Pet Avengers shows that there is definitely interest in the MA line and NA #53 did sell almost 95k last month. Frankly, I'm enjoying the shit out of MA Avengers and Super Heroes. But it's interesting that while entertainment sales actually go up when the economy is down that the comics industry doesn't follow that trend.

That's quite a drop, overall. But it looks like they've taken massive hits across lines, so I assume it has more to do with an overall lack of money going around rather than specific stories.

Oh, yeah. My comment aside it does appear to be a systemic market drop due to the economy.

Still, Pet Avengers shows that there is definitely interest in the MA line and NA #53 did sell almost 95k last month. Frankly, I'm enjoying the shit out of MA Avengers and Super Heroes. But it's interesting that while entertainment sales actually go up when the economy is down that the comics industry doesn't follow that trend.

Annecdotally, the shop I normally go to is a small, local chain with 3 stores. Out of the three, two are in extremely affluent areas and one is in an area that was affluent 15 years ago (around the time it first opened), but has been literally obliterated in the most terrible way by the loss of the auto factories and other unskilled labor. It stood on the literal dividing line between a lower-class urban black area, and a middle-class white area, and it held the mall and all of the retail shops for both of these areas. Now, the city has become a literal ghetto crushed by unemployment and crime, and the middle-class area has also dissolved into a lower class area where many people are trying to move out and the new residents are mostly high school and college drop outs from the more affluent and traditionally white areas.

Also understand that the other two stores are not only in areas that still remain extremely affluent and filled with typically upper-middle and upper-class folks, but that these areas are some of the cities that are least-affected in the country in terms of the recession (there are actually 3 or 4 small areas in Metro Detroit that rely entirely on big business and high-tech skills).

With that set up in mind, business has noticeably declined that the affluent store I occasionally visit, and they've begun to stock and order less. However, the store on the outskirts of the ghetto has been doing gangbusters, and even moved down the plaza into a nicer, double-sized storefront just a year and a half ago. They're stocking more, they're doing better business, and they do the best business of the chain.

Every week I go in, I see dudes who have biked the 3 or 4 miles from the city and other dudes who drive in on their lunch from really intensive blue-collar, on-call style jobs. It's ridiculous.

tl;dr:
-Poor people are crazy about comics.
-My LCS in the outskirts of the ghetto is slaughtering its two sister stores in office-dominated rich areas

He's not the only one. I noticed that we've lost several of the more regular posters here in the past half a year or so (like Balefuego and Blankspace, for example). Why did they leave us? Didn't they love us?

Not that I don't like you guys, but our arguments tend to be the the sorts of things that keep people away from comics. I hate to see people like Bale, Keith, and BadKarma moving on from our corner of the forums.

Is there something specific to comics that causes heated-but-dumb arguments? Or does any relatively small community tend to engage in this sort of thing? I don't really look at the other sub-forums here, but does the RPG one, for example, see the same things happen?

Maybe it's just that we're all on the Internet, and this is how arguments work when the other person isn't a person but just some text on a screen.

First of all, what company someone likes doesn't, and shouldn't, matter. At all.

Second of all, yes, people aren't posting here anymore. Some basically don't post anywhere, some just don't want to post here because of the tone this forum has taken. And I kind of agree with them, but it's not something that's easily fixed, and it's completely off the topic of the thread, which thankfully is ending soon anyways. So everyone drop it, and start asking questions that are actually related to comic books. This is still an on-topic forum.

Other than the Ultimate line of trades and other random trades that seems interesting I havent really collected comics in years, but while I am deployed I got the Marvel Digital subscription and my intrest has been renewed. I like the stuff that is available, but am hating the huge story holes Marvel built into the program. Has anyone followed their "plan" for the digital format, mostly concering older titles. Have they ever said if they have any intention of digitizing full runs of stuff?

Other than the Ultimate line of trades and other random trades that seems interesting I havent really collected comics in years, but while I am deployed I got the Marvel Digital subscription and my intrest has been renewed. I like the stuff that is available, but am hating the huge story holes Marvel built into the program. Has anyone followed their "plan" for the digital format, mostly concering older titles. Have they ever said if they have any intention of digitizing full runs of stuff?

On a related note, has the matter of royalties for writers and artists for posting their work online been worked out yet?

That does look really interesting, I might pick it up. Thanks for the link!

Also thinking about picking up X-Factor, especially since I'm dropping Astonishing (hasn't been any good since Whedon left), and Uncanny and X-Force may be soon to follow once Messiah War and Utopia end. If I was to do that, how far should I go back to start?

BostonGangler on June 2009

0

TexiKenhe's got a f*****g knife in his hand...in his mouthRegistered Userregular

He's not the only one. I noticed that we've lost several of the more regular posters here in the past half a year or so (like Balefuego and Blankspace, for example). Why did they leave us? Didn't they love us?

That does look really interesting, I might pick it up. Thanks for the link!

Also thinking about picking up X-Factor, especially since I'm dropping Astonishing (hasn't been any good since Whedon left), and Uncanny and X-Force may be soon to follow once Messiah War and Utopia end. If I was to do that, how far should I go back to start?

X-factor really isn't all that great, especially since they started the time-travel bullshit.

That does look really interesting, I might pick it up. Thanks for the link!

Also thinking about picking up X-Factor, especially since I'm dropping Astonishing (hasn't been any good since Whedon left), and Uncanny and X-Force may be soon to follow once Messiah War and Utopia end. If I was to do that, how far should I go back to start?

X-factor really isn't all that great, especially since they started the time-travel bullshit.

Lies and slander sir. X-Factor is awesome and are doing cool things with time travel.

Sentry on June 2009

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

wrote:

When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'

He's not the only one. I noticed that we've lost several of the more regular posters here in the past half a year or so (like Balefuego and Blankspace, for example). Why did they leave us? Didn't they love us?

He's not the only one. I noticed that we've lost several of the more regular posters here in the past half a year or so (like Balefuego and Blankspace, for example). Why did they leave us? Didn't they love us?

Okay, here's a question: What the hell is up with Warren Ellis and Avatar comics? I'm a huge Ellis fan, and his Stormwatch runs got me interested in comics again when I'd gotten sick of Marvel/DC, and was really intrigued when I saw a whole shelf of "Warren Ellis' _________" Avatar books at my comic shop the other day. But most of the ones I read were just not up to his old quality levels, though Gravel was at least entertaining. What's the relationship between Avatar and Ellis and all these books they are publishing of his?